5 Members Of Slip-And-Fall Scheme Charged With Defrauding (NYC Businesses & Insurers) (Over $31.7M)

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/5-members-slip-and-fall-scheme-charged-defrauding-new-york-city-area-businesses-and

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 19, 2018

5 Members Of Slip-And-Fall Scheme Charged With Defrauding New York City-Area Businesses And Their Insurance Companies Of More Than $31.7 Million

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and James P. O’Neill, the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging PETER KALKANIS, BRYAN DUNCAN, KERRY GORDON, ROBERT LOCUST, and RYAN RAINFORD with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to obtain fraudulent insurance reimbursement and other compensation for fraudulent slip-and-fall accidents. The Indictment also charges PETER KALKANIS with one count of aggravated identity theft. The five defendants were arrested earlier this morning and will be presented today before United States Magistrate Stewart D. Aaron in Manhattan federal court. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.
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Since 2013, the defendants have been engaged in a widespread fraud scheme through which the defendants defrauded businesses and insurance companies by staging slip-and-fall accidents and filing fraudulent lawsuits arising from those staged slip-and-fall accidents. The fraud scheme participants recruited individuals to stage slip-and-fall accidents at particular locations throughout New York City and to claim that they injured themselves as a result of their accidents. The recruited patients were directed to claim that they had injured themselves and to seek medical treatment.

After the staged slip-and-fall accidents, recruited patients were referred to specific attorneys who would file lawsuits against the owners of the accident sites and/or insurance companies of the owners of the accident sites (the “Victims”). The lawsuits did not disclose that the recruited patients had deliberately fallen at the accident sites or, in some cases, had not fallen at all. During the course of the fraud scheme, the defendants, together with others known and unknown, attempted to defraud the Victims of at least $31,791,000.

The recruited patients were also instructed to receive ongoing chiropractic and medical treatment from certain chiropractors and doctors. The fraud scheme participants advised the recruited patients that if they intended to continue with their lawsuits, they were required to undergo surgery. As an incentive to getting surgery, the recruited patients were offered a payment after they completed surgery as well as a percentage of any settlement payment from their lawsuit.

KALKANIS, a former chiropractor, was the organizer and leader of the scheme. As alleged in the indictment, KALKANIS paid his co-defendants to recruit patients into the scheme and transport the patients to medical and attorney appointments. KALKANIS also organized the recruited patients’ legal and medical appointments, and assisted in procuring the funding for the recruited patients’ medical treatment and lawsuits.

DUNCAN, GORDON, LOCUST, and RAINFORD helped recruit patients into the fraud scheme, transported patients to medical and legal appointments, identified potential accident sites, and coached recruited patients on faking their injuries.